so...

Well so as not to make this post a complete downer, I will just say that it's an anniversary that isn't one to celebrate. To go a bit further down this sad path, it was two years ago today that we said goodbye to the matriarch of the Morrison Clan. "Nanny" to me, Mom, sister....Theresa.

There is no one word that could sum up how we all feel about her, there just isn't one in any language that I know of to sum up what a truly remarkable person she was. I hate past tense, because to me she still is, she still is in the large family and her husband of 60+ years. She still "is", in the funny, happy stories that we all tell, in her large collection of recipes, In the tiny cottage that sits in a grassy field on Prince Edward Island, and in the hearts of everyone she met and became friends with.

So on this day, I have tried to push back the sad, melancholy feeling that has been sitting on my heart. Instead I will think on the lovely person she "IS", I will call my Grampa and ask him how the weather is on the island (PEI), try to tell him I love him without saying those words that will make us both cry. I will also make another of her recipes, a boil cake, that I can remember nibbling on at the tiny kitchen table, while drinking my fourth cup of tea and talking about nothing in particular.



This is a picture I took during my final year studying photography, it took some convincing to get her down the stairs and on to the stoop in her night dress, but not much. I would also like to share the recipe of hers I chose to make today, "Boil Cake", a lovely fall smelling dense cake, and it was also lovely that the copy of the recipe we have is in her writing.

Boil Cake

2 cups raisins (old dry ones are good for this)
1/2 cup shortening (I used veggie oil)
2 cups boiling water or tea (I used my fave British tea)
1 cup white sugar (I switched this with 1/3 cup honey)
1/2 tsp salt

Boil above 10 minutes, take off and add,

1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (fresh good too)
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp soda mixed in 1/4 cup tea (be careful here, the recipe didn't mention that there would be a chemical reaction and it all bubbled up, so make this in a biggish pot)

Let cool, add

2 eggs (I beat them slightly)
1 tsp baking powder
about 3 cups baking powder.

Quick tip: mix 2 cups of the flour with the baking powder so it wont clump up when added to wet mixture.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour (in a bunt pan...the one that one would make angle food cake in, I think it's called bunt)

Well I hope you try this, mine is in the oven so I will try and post a pic of it before we devour it! I posted last year around this time so if you are interested in a couple of other pics of my Nanny have a look here, I especially love the one of her and I in our curlers. Enjoy your day, and don't forget to squeeze the one you love.

is this crazy?

Good morning SUNSHINE! Hope everything is well will all of you out there, up to crafty-ness I hope. I have had a bit of a break from all things crafty this week. After last weekends art show I am pooped, and since everyone around me is getting the flew I figured I should just take it easy and have a little break from anything that required any brain cells. This meant a week of watching a lot of tv, some movies, playing some video games with James, choosing the fabric and cutting out the pieces for a couple more farmers wife blocks.

Also, and I am not proud of this last one...scanning the cat! yep, scanning the cat. I have seen these pics in a few places online and thought they look super cool, I wondered if my tiny beast would sit still long enough for the scanner to do it's thing. Well he did, and I must say that the result is way cool, the poor cat, I have now become obsessed! I even have thoughts of grabbing cats off the street to throw them on the scanner, that is not a sane thought! Our little Ollie is a cat we took in, he had spent a winter living outside my grandparents apartment, and you can actually see where his little paws had frost bite and will never fully heal. I also feel bad looking at his front paws, whoever had him first had him de-clawed, which seems so very cruel to me.


Anyway, not much crafty happening here, my hopes are today that I will be able to take a trip to my favourite fabric store in town, "The Workroom". I want to pick up some new embroiderey floss, the kind with sparkles, and I have my eye on a few fat quarters as well. My goal with the farmer's wife quilt was to only use things from my stash, ha, that really hasn't happened. Mind you a stash is ever growing is it not?!

Enjoy today!

two more sleeps...

Well, oh my, the weekend is fast approaching and my hands have actually cramped up a few times these past few days, but I think I am close to being ready for this weekends show. I am going to have a booth again this year at the "Danforth East Arts Fair", and no matter how prepared I think I am I never am totally relaxed, I am pretty sure my middle name is chicken little!



In between sewing and beading and fretting about everything we also had to save a mouse! Luckily the mouse was not in our house (hehe I rhymed) but he did come very close to getting gobbled up by the neighbours cat "tommy". "Tommy" is ferocious when it comes to catching and eating small furry things and we just couldn't let this poor little guy get eaten. I got James to scoop him into a box and it was then that we noticed that the poor little fella had only one eye! His fur was the most lovely shad of grey/brown and his little paws were so tiny. I admit that I did toy with the idea of keeping him, but figured that was probably not a good idea. So we took him down to the ravine at the end of our street and found a good little home for him. Trust me I know that he probably is not much better down there, but I have concocted this little idea that we reunited him with his family that has been looking for him. Please don't think poorly of me, I really don't have the mentality of a child but I was so obsessed with "Fival Mousekawitz" when I was a kid so, yeah anyway.

So if you are in the Woodbine and Danforth area this weekend pop by, it should be a lovely fall weekend in the city. Hope your enjoying the first tastes of autumn! I love the crisp chill in the air, it really does freshen everything up. oh and I do have more farmers wife blocks done so I will probably get those posted early next week.

restless...

Well, I really cant sleep tonight so I thought I would post this weeks blocks. I don't know what it is, I just cant seem to shut off the brain tonight. I'm thinking about next weekends craft show and all that I would like to get done. Also, that I really miss PEI, I just cant seem to get it out of my head this time as quickly. I know being on vacation is different and that you always miss it, but it's more than that. I miss the quite, just the chirp of crickets and the rustle of leaves, and how dark it gets there at night. I miss the trip to the beach at dusk, and the long country roads where the trees have totally grown over, and you rarity of other cars on those roads. I know it sounds crazy but I also miss, the smile on my dogs face after he is totally tired out from swimming, and we have just dried him off with the towels. Even the twinkle in James' eye, that even he is not aware is there. I also miss sitting down at the table for dinner with Grampa, listening to his stories about the days that have passed. My favourite this year was how he walked from Crapaud to the farm in Brookvale in snow that was up to his knees, just so he could see my Nanny. Sure, it was long, but he said the mickey that was in his pocket kept him warm for most of the walk. I know this feeling will subside until we make plans for our next drive down, but I wonder if...ah, I am actually not going to finish that sentence tonight. It is probably what the lack of sleep is doing to me but some things are just better left unsaid.

So it is kind of ironic that this week one of my farmer's wife blocks has a tiny little country cottage in it...

Week 15 : blocks #2 and #40



I am hoping with my next post I will show those of you reading this, some pictures of my most favourite place. Goodnight, sleep well.

More blocks

Not really feeling it this past week, kinda lost a bit o verve. It's probably the post vacation blues, so I will keep it short and just show you this weeks farmer's wife blocks. Oh, also yesterday was my birthday, and I totally cleaned up gift wise, thanks to all my lovely peeps around me. I have yet to snap any pics of the great gifts but I will definitely post again soon.

Week 14, blocks #4 & #44 (isn't it kinda weird all the fours happening? strange!)



So there they are...I changed the layout of block #4, for me i just liked it a bit better this way. Hope everyone is having a good week, I would love to know what you all do to help pull yourselves out of a funk. Like eating chocolate, reading a trashy book, going to the gym...I don't really do this last one but I hear it helps :)